Weekend From Hell
 

So we go to launch the boat on Saturday and my brother and mom get it off the ramp, everything seems normal, but just as I get back to the house with the trailer, my brother comes running up from the dock screaming there's water coming into the boat. My friend and I think they're just being dramatic, but the look on my lil bro's face made me a bit uneasy. So we hooked up the trailer again and I had my friend race down to the ramp while I went out on the jet ski to chase my now frantic mom who is driving around the lake thinking if she slows down the water will flood in. I finally catch up with her and tell her to stop. Still thinking she is being dramatic, I come up to her and see water pouring from the bilge and out of the engine compartment. I screamed for her to quickly get up to speed again. Now, her and I go flying into the No Wake zone at 25 mph, (getting yelled and swore at the whole time). She finally gets it up onto the trailer that just arrived and is almost in tears, thinking we had ruined our brand new boat with 12 hours on it. Long story short, it turns out the clamp on the hose running water from the lake to cool the engine off was never installed properly or slowly came undone, meaning the faster we went, more water was flooding into the boat. In the end, nothing was damaged, just had to let everything dry.

ENTER DAY 2, with everything dry, we gave it another go, this time with me at the helm. I back it off like I've done before, and put it in drive, but my momentum from going backwards along with the wind immediately push me towards the concrete wall and ramp. If I kick it in reverse again, the boat will end up in the rocks because we are now sideways from the wind. So I decided to try and go forward with the turn that I was in, :banghead: As all of you know, inboards don't exactly have the best performance when running slow speeds. Naturally it took a second for the boat to turn away from the ramp, but that was all it took. Before I knew it, the wind along with my idiotic maneuvers had put us back over the concrete ramp. And just as I went to shut off the engine, I heard the horrible sound of my prop trying to cut through the ramp. Needless to say, we pulled it out again, and now need a new prop. :banghead: FML

Sorry to hear that, but I'm sure most of us can relate in one way or another.

I'm guilty of the forgotten plug myself.

I checked your profile and it looks like you've got a 2012 Moomba. With that, I'm not surprised at day 1. My boat had the same problem in 2007, except the fitting was broke, and I found the problem before leaving the trailer. I always checked the engine and bilge before leaving the trailer to make sure everythings good and no leaks. I did that from day 1, until the day I sold the boat 5 years later.

Skier's Choice, to me, is piss-poor in quality. My boat had that problem in 2007, your boat has that in 2012. What's that tell you? I had lots of issues with them, hardly ever got them resolved, bitched, moaned, complained, everything. It did no good. It got to where I just fixed everything on my own. I finally got sick of waiting or not getting the right answers that I just gave up and fixed everything on my own. Keep in mind that this was their flagship boat in 2007, and when I bought it, the boat still had shrinkwrap on it.

We have all experienced the challenges that come with being a new boat owner. Just be thankful that nobody got hurt.

Days like that will happen!!! You will mess up props, break things, get pissed off at people, but you will also have some awesome times!!! Dont let it get to ya, just make sure you keep your head and realize that as long as no body got hurt, it was a good day. You can fix a boat, you can't always fix a person.

If you go out enough, the statistics will get ya, and **** WILL hit the fan sometimes. Nothing you can do but try and be prepared and start expecting the unexpected!

I backed my trailer into the dock this weekend. Only my 2nd time out this season, a little rusty. I don't use my mirrors when I back up, I just turn around. Gets a little tough to see when the truck is on level ground and the trailer is on the ramp. I could see that I was going in on an angle, tried to correct but didn't correct enough. Thought I just needed to back up abit more and the boat would slip off and then I heard a bang! The girlfriend and two buddys couldn't be bothered to yell out " stop " . bent the guide pole a little but the real damage was done to my ego..

^^Bent guide poles can be fixed for cheap, but ego cant be bought.

Great words on encouragment. Biggest thing I would say is learn from your experiences and others you read about and some of this stuff should only happen to you once.

Im gonna start a thread. "The Guide to Screwing Up" so we can all share stories of what not to do.... hows that sound!?

Yes, thankfully no one was hurt and the damage could have been a lot worse. I'm so glad this weekend is over, and I can only hope any other potential problems are trivial compared to this.

JonyB, I know Moomba had quality issues, especially before Skier's Choice took over production. But other than that "slight hiccup", this boat has been perfect for us along with the dealer and Moomba. No problems whatsoever, and the Outback V is such a leap ahead of the i/o we had. With that being said however, those past quality issues are definitely on the radar after this. It sounds like you had a very bad experience with Moomba and Skier's Choice, and I'm sorry to hear that. Only time will tell if we have the same experience you did, I certainly hope we don't.

Sorry to hear about your bad day on the water but no matter what it's better than a day at work!!!!! I just sold my 2007 moomba LSV, I had zero problems in the 200 hours I put on that boat. Your days will get better with the inboard remember throttle will help you steer.

Maybe like a "Owning an Inboard for Dumbies" type of deal. That could help out alot of people. Ever so often I read about something on WW and think to myself, Why have I not been donig that from day one?

I had my first bad day this year today, although i feel better now still sorry to hear about your damages. My buddy parked my truck/trailor 1st spot front row next to bbq pits and restrooms. When it was time for boat clean up in parking lot we noticed someone threw up in the bed and side of my truck, he had to be messed up cause he ran his hand all over it and left hand prints Was thinking no bigie im due to wash my truck anyways. But when i get home i noticed my trailor tire was hissing, had a big screw in it, that bumed me out just thinking that a screw was maybe intentionaly placed by the tire so i would run over it. But just a little work and a few bucks will take care of it. I dread the day i mangle my prop, especially since our lake level is dropping gotta be more cautious.

Day one is pretty scary, glad it turned out OK. As for day two...bent props happen. I always keep a spare on hand just in case. Make sure you check the shaft isn't bent, install a new prop and go enjoy your great new boat!

BlOod sweAt Tears

I think we can all relate to that one way or another. Ruined my prop first day of my brand new boat. Ruined amps, boards, pumps and got stranded in the middle of the lake also.

If it was always fun (like it is most of the time) EVERYBODY would buy a boat and our lake would be overcrowded. This one other way to look at it!

You're lucky that a wrecked prop is all that happened. That's an easy fix my man. Now you will learn the importance of having a spare prop! Time to upgrade the prop, and send the OEM one for a repair and keep it as a backup.

Never looked at it that way, but now that I think about it I'm kinda glad these things cost so much. Weeds out a ton of people.

I always afraid if I did have to change a prop I would drop something and be screwed anyways. Anyone changed one in the water?

If it makes you feel anybetter we lost the whole wheel assembly on one of our trailer tire this past weekend. Were still able to launch on three tires, but it's looking like a 1k fix, and our boat is still 200 miles away since we couldn't drive it back

Yeah, we're lucky a mangled prop was the worst of the damage. Could have lost the engine had we been in the water just a little bit longer.

Wow Chris, that does make me feel a little bit better, but I'm sorry to hear about your misfortune. What's the timeframe for getting the wheel assembly fixed?

Just wanted to let you know that this exact same thing happened to me - we had been rolling in the lake for a few minutes and noticed the wake looked massive compared to normal. I then noticed that water was coming out of the bilge -- I opened the engine compartment and nearly lost it. I thought I had a huge hole in the boat or something! Never the less, turns out the guy doing my winterization didn't put the clip back on the hose and it had came off. A quick vision inspection didnt show that until after we got back to the dock....


Owning a boat can be terrifying at times...

I forgot the plug one time and this helped me. My bilge pumps are automatic so I always launch with them on. If you launch and your pumps come on immediately, (like mine did) you know you have a problem. Luckily a buddy was there and helped my wife get the plug in. She noticed the bilge pumps and quickly beached the boat in a sandy area. Problem was solved before I even parked the trailer.

carry a spare impeller-words to live by.

the lesson here is that when things get jacked up in shallow waters remember that instead of putting it in gear---jump in the water and get the boat in deeper water before engaging the drive. You can't be afraid to get wet. It's way cheaper than a new prop/shaft.

"the lesson here is that when things get jacked up in shallow waters remember that instead of putting it in gear---jump in the water and get the boat in deeper water before engaging the drive. You can't be afraid to get wet. It's way cheaper than a new prop/shaft"

^^^^EXACTLY^^^^^

I hear of so many hose connections coming loose the first outing after de-winterizing. I don't have to winterize anymore but I did a few years back. Learn to do it yourself. its fast and easy and saves 2 trips to the dealer and you will KNOW it was done, or done correctly.

OP, sorry to hear about your prop, I have ruined a couple myself. Hopefully you got everything out of your system and your summer will be perfect from here on out.

How many of you guys actually cary a spare prop in your boat? In our old I/O we used to cary one, but not with our V-drive. I guess you could put the boat back on the trailer to switch them out, but I couldn't imagine using a prop puller underwater....Thats insanity!

how many of you guys really cary an extra prop and puller on your boat? I couldn't imagine using a prop puller underwater.

I really am sorry you had such a rough time with your new boat. I know it's after the fact but I have two telescoping poles in my boat that have come in handy almost everytime I took the boat out. The poles extend out about 8ft so if your boat goes sideways and/or the boat next to you in the ramp does I have the poles ready down the walkway of my boat. I have also used the poles to reach into the water to prevent my prop or bottom of my boat hit rocks or the ramp. Works great too if you come up on a dock and the wind catches the boat you can grab onto the dock. Just a thought anyway.
http://www.jamestowndistributors.com...t=77321&NEXTAG

If i go on a trip away from my home lakes I bring my spare prop, puller and tools needed for a prop swap and keep them in the truck so i could change it on the trailer. Otherwise, it stays at home.

^^^ - same here...most of the time the prop is at the house.